The present invention relates to gaming, and in particular, to locating gaming chips on a gaming table.
Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
In a casino gaming environment, there is a need for efficiency, accuracy and auditing. Efficiency relates to the speed of the game, which contributes to player engagement as well as increases the rate of return on the game. Accuracy relates to the correctness of intakes and payouts, which contributes to player satisfaction as well as conforms the rate of return to historical expectations. Auditing relates to the ability of management to review the efficiency and accuracy.
Traditionally, casinos have relied on training to meet their goals for efficiency, accuracy and auditing. Well-trained dealers are more efficient and accurate. Well-trained pit bosses are more easily able to view, review and audit the activities of the dealers and players.
More recently, radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is being deployed in casinos. Gaming tokens include RFID tags, and gaming tables include RFID readers. The particular location of a gaming token on a gaming table is often important; however, this is a challenge for RFID technology. One solution is to define specific betting spots on a gaming table, associate an RFID antenna with each betting spot, and then engineer the system such that each RFID antenna only detects the RFID tokens located in its betting spot. Various techniques may be used to engineer the system; these include providing physical space between adjacent betting spots, providing electromagnetic shielding (e.g., ground loops) around antennas, generating cancellation fields, etc.
FIG. 1 is a top view of a stylized Baccarat table 100. The table 100 includes 12 seated player positions, each having a player betting spot (individually numbered 120a-120l) and a dealer betting spot (individually numbered 130a-130l). Within a betting spot (e.g., 120a or 130a), the seated player may place one or more gaming tokens (a bet), and one or more bettors may each place one or more gaming tokens (additional “back bets”). The table also includes betting spots 140a and 140b for placing bets on a tie. Generally, each bet associated with an entity (either the seated player or the back bettor) is placed as a discrete stack for easy identification by the gaming personnel. Thus, a betting spot may have multiple stacks of gaming tokens (with a single gaming token being considered a “stack” for purposes of this discussion).
FIG. 2 is a top view of a stylized roulette table 200. The table 200 includes a wheel (not shown) and numerous betting spots (shown as boxes in the grid 220). A betting spot indicates a specific number (e.g., 1, 2, 3, etc.) or various groupings (e.g., red, black, odd, even, etc.) that the wheel may indicate. For a particular betting spot (e.g., 220a), a bet may be placed within the betting spot (a “straight” bet, indicating a bet only on that spot), on the line between two spots (a “split” bet, indicating the bet is on both of those two spots), or at the intersection of two lines (a “corner” bet, indicating the bet is on all four of the spots surrounding the intersection). Other types of bets may be indicated by other placements of gaming tokens, such as a “street” bet (three numbers in a line), a “line” or “double street” bet (two adjacent lines each having three numbers), a “top line” (five number) bet (0, 00, 1, 2, 3), etc. The game has multiple players, and each player may place multiple bets. For ease of identification, roulette players use gaming tokens having different colors. Thus, a betting spot (or intersection between spots) may have one or more stacks of gaming tokens, each stack having one or more colors.